The Love That Satisfies | Christopher West | Wonderful book mixing the Theology of the Body and...

The Love That Satisfies | Christopher West | Excellent presentation of a difficult topic

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The Love That Sati...

	The Love That Satisfies Christopher West Ascension Press, 2007 - 176 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Building on the legacy of Pope John Paul II, it is significant that the first encyclical letter of Pope Benedict XVI is dedicated to the topic God is Love. The Holy Father demonstrates that it is agape, the self-sacrificial love of God that empowers romantic love, eros, with life-giving and meaningful existence. In The Love That Satisfies, Christopher West draws from the Pope s letter a series of insightful and inspiring reflections on the nature of eros, agape, and the relationship between the two. He shows that it is through recognizing and embracing the beauty of God s self-sacrificial love that a person is able to truly be satisfied. In uniting the love of God to the love of spouse, the nuptial bond is fulfilled. Perhaps even more profound is the reality that God and the Bridegroom of the Church has a personal love for his Bride that may certainly be called eros (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, n. 9).

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Wonderful book mixing the Theology of the Body and Pope Benedict's first encyclical

I found this to be a wonderful book. I have never read any of Christopher West's books before, but was aware of his work as one of the foremost teachers and populizer of John Paul II's Theology of the Body. His latest book takes Pope Benedict XVI first encyclical Deus Caritas Est for use as a guiding template on the topics of Eros and Agape. He selected 63 key quotes from the first part of Deus Caritas Est which mainly deals with the relationship of Eros and Agape and unpacks them in easily understandable language.

Reading Deus Caritas Est before I never realized how it matches up so closely to John Paul II's Theology of the Body. Though this is not surprising and any way and Pope John Paul II's understanding is quite useful in understanding and getting the most out of Pope Benedict's first encyclical. While Deus Caritas Est is not that difficult to read, it is nice to take a more leisurely stroll through some of the key ideas in the first part and to explore them more closely in the context of our society today. The book's nine chapters prominently deal with Eros and Agape, what they are, their proper relationship, and their common misunderstandings. Like just about everything in the Catholic faith once again it is a case of both/and and not the divisive separation the so-called sexual revolution has give them. It is not Eros that was poisoned by Christians, but Agape that was poisoned and a wedge driven between Agape and Eros by our culture.

Throughout the book Christopher West looks at the fruits of the "sexual revolution" which he says should be called the "pornographic revolution." Like many revolutions they often end up with a dictator in control, and this case it was the dictatorship of libido. He uses the examples of people like St. Augustine, Hugh Hefner, Bono, Truman Burbank (from the movie The Truman Show), and others to illustrate his points. The book though does not take a confrontational view in the culture wars, but gives us a proper understanding and the hope that goes with it. He also describes the tendencies to either Angelism (spirit against the body) or animalism (body to the neglect of the spirit) and the damage these unbalanced views cause. As with all heresies and errors it is the exaggeration of one truth and the diminishing of another that provides the most potent damage. It is only when we start to realize God's love for us that we can learn to respond in a fully human manner where Eros and Agape our properly balanced.

Christopher West as produced a quite magnificent book that takes serious theological ideas down to a level easily absorbed. I truly got a lot out of this book and it has given me much to think about and makes me want to read the Pope's encyclical once again to get even more out of it.

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Excellent presentation of a difficult topic

Christopher Wet does a fine job in making the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church accessible to the average reader.

Satisfying....

I bought this book because I wasn't entirely clear on the inter-relationship between eros and agape as laid out in Deus Caritas Est. Furthermore, there have been a couple of chastity programmes that our youth ministry has been looking at and finally I chose a programme with a Christian background (not Catholic). So I have been asking myself how I would "appendix" a Catholic perspective.

The answer to my latter question came on page 32, that marriage is to be an icon of the Trinity, "to reveal, to proclaim and anticipate the eternal union of Christ and the Church". Engaging in premarital sex would then be us not pursuing our destiny to be conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), which is the call of every disciple.

I think the answer to my former question comes in two ways. Firstly, eros (human, erotic love) is meant to express agape (divine, sacrificial love). The relationship between husband and wife is meant to express Christ's relationship with the Church. Secondly, the relationship between the two loves is that eros is "ascending" love while agape is "descending" love.

I stand to be corrected but I feel like the book could have benefited from a stronger editing so that the points come out clearer or the train of thought flow more logically. Maybe clear sub-headings may have helped .

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